


first time for everything

by LEMONADANG



Category: We Bare Bears (TV)
Genre: M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-10-27 00:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20751368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LEMONADANG/pseuds/LEMONADANG
Summary: What else are you supposed to do when there's only one bed (your bed) and two guys, the other guy being your almost-kinda-not-official-crush?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OmletoX](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmletoX/gifts).

> this is a birthday gift for @OmletoX!

Panda squirmed uncomfortably on the couch as the news report droned on the TV. He knew what was to come this evening, and had it on the backburner for far too long. He could see through the parted curtains to the left of him out of his peripheral, the sky an uncomfortably dark gray. Trees swayed to and fro no doubt thanks to the steadily increasing velocity of the wind.

“Man, wind speeds up to 80 miles per hour?” Grizz asked no one in particular, reiterating what was already made clear by the weather report. Ice Bear watched from the doorway between the living room and the kitchen, drying a dish with a stoic worried look on his face. 

California was no stranger to erratic weather, but a storm of this caliber wasn’t something that happened often. It was labeled only as a severe thunderstorm, but the way the clouds swirled ominously outside told Panda it wasn’t likely to stay that way for long. 

He knew the longer he waited to do something, the worse it would get. The hum of the TV did little to quell his rushing mind as it jumped from one thought to the other-- would things be fine? He had assumed they would, had things not been fine before? Panda thought about the hurricane. Were things fine then? Would they have been fine if he wasn’t there? 

Without warning, Panda sprang from his seat, bolting for the front door. He didn’t owe anybody an explanation, when Grizz asked what he was doing Panda could only stammer a “I’ll be right back,” and when Grizz told him it was unsafe he was already closing the door behind him. 

A foreboding humidity hung in the air, the pounding wind doing little to counteract the thickness. The sky was ugly and scary and Panda didn’t feel rain droplets yet, but that didn’t comfort him. He didn’t have long to get this done. He knew at some point it was to start raining and eventually pouring, but the longer he could postpone the eventual drenching the better. 

His legs took him into the forest. There was only one reason he’d ever go into the forest of his own volition, and that reason was Charlie. Panda wasn’t particularly fond of the other things that resided in the forest, he’s had one too many scrapes with poison ivy (maybe that’s revenge for being a vegetarian?), but all he cared about right now was getting to _Charlie._ That flimsy old car was no suitable shelter from a storm, and Panda wouldn’t be able to sleep if he knew Charlie was out in the cold wind and rain.

He needed to get to Charlie. He didn’t care if that meant turning his house and room into Noah’s Arc for the night, as long as he was able to verify that Charlie was warm and dry and _safe_ was all that mattered to him. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t have competent shelter, why should he have to suffer because of it? 

Panda must have been too focused on finding Charlie underneath the steadily spreading fog, because he managed to trip on something, and when he tried getting back up, he fell again. His foot hurt a bit, and when he looked back it was twisted under the root of an uprooted tree. 

Oh no, Panda thought, somehow a dang _tree_ was already pulled from the ground and it _fell_ on _something_ and that _something_ could have been _Charlie_ and--

“Panda?”

Panda was vaguely able to make out a voice, and at the same time a drop of water fell on his nose. 

“Panda, I was just coming to check on you, what are you doing out here?” Panda was able to make out the voice far more clear than before. “What are you doing on the ground?”

_Charlie._ Panda would have leapt into his arms had he not been incapacitated, instead looking up at him with globes for eyes. He didn’t answer the questions at first, and Charlie gasped when he noticed the condition of Panda’s leg. It didn’t hurt, but it was definitely stuck. He took absolutely no hesitation as to remove Panda’s leg from the askew branch. Panda winced a bit when a stray splinter scraped his ankle, and he managed to stand up without slipping on the slick mud. 

“Charlie! I…” Panda blanked, and instead of wallowing in his speechlessness he threw a pair of damp black arms around Charlie. His heart banged and thumped and pounded, half in anxiety and half in incredible gratefulness. His heart almost wasn’t ready to accept that Charlie was safe, that he was right in front of him, that he found what he was looking for. 

Charlie didn’t say anything, instead wrapping his own arms around Panda. It was a combination of passionate heat and ice cold rain, both immediately noticeable. 

Panda was the first to pull away. “Come on, it’s not safe for you to be out here in the rain, the storm is about to get really bad!”

Almost as if in punctuation, thunder boomed out somewhere in the far distance. Panda flinched, clinging gently to Charlie. The rain and wind picked up, further proving Panda’s point.

“I’m taking you to my house, it’s safe there!” 

“No, Charlie,” Panda insisted. “My house is like a hundred times safer! We’re going to _my_ house!” 

“A-Are you sure?” Charlie asked, unsure. “I won’t be a problem?” 

“No way, man! It’d be a bigger problem if you got hurt because you weren’t prepared!’

They were shouting at this point, even though the rumbling thunder, rain, and wind wasn’t super loud. Panda held a paw above his brow, an amateur replacement for any umbrella he could use. He grabbed Charlie’s hand and they ran. They ran a slippery, wet route back to Panda’s house, and Panda regretted not grabbing his inhaler. His chest burned and he coughed when they made it home. They were both about a million times wetter than they wanted to be, but at least they made it, right? Yeah, things were working out.

Panda took it upon himself to usher Charlie into the cave, closing the door behind him after they were both fully in. 

“Panda!” Grizz was the first to greet them, but his focus on Panda was shortly diverted when he noticed Charlie. “Charlie? Panda, you left to go get Charlie?”

“I’m sorry for running out so fast, I know it’s--”

“Panda, no! I never even thought about Charlie!” Grizz defended, standing up from the couch. He realized they were acting like Charlie wasn’t in the room, so he turned to Charlie. “Don’t worry Charlie, you’ll be nice and dry here!”

“Let me just…” Grizz looked around, trying to find something to do. “Find… a towel?” He switches between Charlie and Panda, both nearly soaked to the bone. “Two towels!”

Panda and Charlie stood there awkwardly, worried that if they sit down they’ll get the furniture wet rendering it unusable. Grizz took off, and in the same moment Ice Bear stepped out of his fridge bed, rubbing his eyes in tiredness. They had woken him up, but he was never one to spite those that did that. He walks over to them, yawning.

“Ice Bear wasn’t expecting this.” 

“Yeah, well, start expecting it.” 

Grizz came back with what looked like way more than two towels bundled up in his arms, stacked so high that he needed to peek out from the side to see Panda and Charlie. He wasted no time in dumping them on the couch, quickly grabbing one and wrapping it around Panda’s shoulders. He did the same for Charlie a moment later. 

Once most of the water was dried out of the duo’s fur, Grizz took the used towels into the laundry room. The rest would go back into the linen closet. Grizz came back and stood around awkwardly for a moment, rocking on his toes, looking proud. 

“Well, it’s getting late, so…” Panda said.

“Oh, are you going to bed?” Grizz asked. “Shoot, I should too.” 

The clock read a time that was well past any time anybody wanted to be up, but that was because they had stayed up late waiting for updates on the weather. 

Grizz left, and went to bed. 

“So, uh…” Panda started, but didn’t make eye contact with Charlie. Instead, he looked shyly off to the side. “I’ll sleep on the couch, then?”

“What?” Charlie asked, incredulous. “No!”

“I want you to have my bed, it’s a lot more comfortable--”

“You can sleep in bed with me!”

What? No, really. _WHAT?_

Panda couldn’t give a straight answer. He stammered for a bit, his whole face blazing a non-subtle ruby. If Charlie noticed, he didn’t make that clear. 

“Great, let’s go!” Charlie grabbed Panda by the paw and ushered him into his own room, robbing him of a response. 

Panda let it happen with little protest. Truthfully, something about sharing a whole _bed_ with Charlie made him feel… funny. It wasn’t unlike how he felt when he spoke to a girl for any extended period of time, but this time he couldn’t control it. He never made the conscious decision to start having those emotions around Charlie, and it did more than confuse him. His heart beat just a bit faster around Charlie, his motions just a bit clumsier. 

This was too much, too too toooo much. 

So, they were in Panda’s room now. The only light that shone through the blinds was from the moon and the stars, which didn’t help Panda not be a clumsy fool, unable to find his footing with _Charlie_ on his mind. His brain could only focus on one thing at a time.

“So… h-how should we do this?” Panda managed to ask, his thumping heartbeat almost tangible in his voice.

“You know as good as I do,” Charlie furrowed his brow in analysis. “This bed ain’t big enough for the both of us.”

“S-So, do you think…” Panda started, with no ending planned. He didn’t know where Charlie was going with that, so he decided to ride that wave. 

“...Hm,” Charlie made a satisfied hum. “I’m gonna have to cuddle you!”

Panda died in that moment. His soul left his body and went to a higher realm. No, for real, though, Panda prayed and thanked God for giving him furry _BLACK_ ears, thus concealing the burning red blush underneath. That, of course, was assuming the fur wasn’t outright singed off by this point. 

Panda made a little noise with his throat that Charlie must have heard, because he wrapped an arm around Panda and squeezed him close. “Aw, it won’t be so bad!”

Charlie and Panda had different ideas of what “bad” meant. Panda let out his nervousness in the form of a shaky sigh, wrapping an arm around Charlie’s leg. This boy was _TALL._ “If you say so.”

Charlie wasted no time in climbing into the bed and pulling the purple blanket over himself, eagerly looking at Panda, waiting for him to do the same. Panda could barely make out that big stupid grin on his face, and he had trouble concealing one of his own. He threw his worries to the wind and settled into bed next to Charlie. There’d be no way to hide his heartbeat now! 

It was a bit of a tight squeeze. Panda could feel how warm Charlie was, and that did little to aid his racing heart. 

“I feel like I’m about to fall off the bed,” Panda commented passively, mostly as a joke. He wouldn’t have said it if he had known what Charlie would do to rectify that, though. 

“Aw, I’ll hold you, then!” Charlie cooed, pulling Panda close. They were practically spooning at this point, Panda being the little spoon for obvious reasons. He felt so safe, he wanted to feel like this forever. A good balance of nerves and tranquility. Charlie’s hands are around Panda’s middle, and Panda places his paws over them. It’s like holding hands, but not.

Panda wants to melt into Charlie. He’s tired and knows Charlie must be too, but he doesn’t want to lose this feeling to sleep. They make sleepy smalltalk for what feels like hours, quietly giggling to each other over silly jokes or dumb puns.

“Hey, Pumpkin?”

Panda loved that nickname. “What?”

“Your hearts beatin’ real fast.”

“I-Is it?”


	2. epilogue

When Panda woke up, the cold bareness was the first thing that told him Charlie was no longer in bed with him. His head turned around as he sat up, pawing around for the blanket-- it didn’t take him long to notice it had been thrown off the bed. He blinked in his groggy, sightless state, and rubbed his eyes. 

Panda swiped his glasses off the end table (they hadn’t been replaced in years so he still found himself squinting when he wore them) and put them on. Had Charlie gone home? Why didn’t he say anything, woken Panda up? It was too early for Panda to be angry, but his heart couldn’t help but ache a bit. Oh, well-- he thought. Pointless to get your hopes up about anything.

The TV was on when Panda dragged himself into the living room, which wouldn’t have been unusual had it been… _Grizz_ that was watching it. 

“Well _good morning_ sleepyhead!” Charlie waved to Panda from his place on the couch.

Ah, okay. If Panda weren’t still so tired maybe he’d cry out in relief that Charlie hadn’t abandoned him in bed last night. He did that in his brain, though, so no harm no foul.

“Well, you look pleased as a peach,” Obviously he couldn’t hide his emotions as well as he would have liked to, Charlie was already calling attention to it. “Don’t worry,” Charlie chuckles, “Ol’ Charlie ain’t goin’ nowhere.” 

Was he a freaking mind reader?! 

“Your brothers went out to the store, so I figured I’d…” Charlie gestures to the whole deal. “Make myself at home.” 

“You didn’t have to throw the blanket on the floor, y’know,” Panda complains in mock annoyance. “You know how cold it gets.” Panda curls up on the couch next to Charlie, already wishing they were back in bed.

“Oh, that reminds me--” Charlie leaps from the couch, heads towards the kitchen where Panda can no longer see him, and comes back with a plate. “I made you breakfast!”

He hands Panda the plate, which hosts two badly burnt pieces of what could no longer legally referred to as toast. Without letting Charlie see him, Panda peers past Charlie to make sure the kitchen isn’t burnt to a crisp. It’s not, somehow.

Hey, at least it’s edible, right…?

“Oh, uh-- thanks?” Panda takes a bite, and it basically disintegrates in his mouth before he starts chewing, and it tastes like burnt plywood. Panda swallows and makes his way through one piece before passing the plate back to Charlie, who finishes the other. Better burnt toast than actual garbage, or wood chips, or bugs, Panda supposes. 

Charlie sits back down on the couch next to Panda and throws a long arm around his shoulders, which makes Panda’s heart leap. Panda can’t help but notice Charlie has crumbs on his fur.

They’re watching football on TV, but Panda has trouble focusing on anything but the arm around him, his own beating heart, and how Charlie kinda smells like he got into Grizz’s supply of AXE body spray, which Panda neither loves nor hates. Somehow, Charlie makes it work, and he lets Charlie’s warmth envelop him. It’s cold, after all, and his heart’s beatin’ real fast.

\---

“Move over, I wanna see too!”

“Ice Bear was here first.”

“As your oldest brother I _demand_ you give me access to the window so I can see my babiest bro have his first cuddle-sesh!”

“Ice bear,” He says, “Was here first.”

“Okay, fine--” Grizz concedes. “I can’t believe Charlie made us pretend to go to the store just so he could spend time with Panda. Cannot _BELIEVE_ it!”

“Ice Bear respects Charlie’s slickness.”


End file.
